Prop. 187

Are we about to welcome Arizona into the Democratic fold? In 1994, California Republican State Rep. Dick Mountjoy sponsored prop. 187. With Republican Governor Pete Wilson, (Why is it always Republicans?) as it's main supporter, 187 was approved by the voters of California. What prop. 187 did was to deny most state services to anyone in California, who was not a legal resident of the United States. While the backers of 187 were quick to point out that the children of Canadians illegally in the United States would also be kicked out of public schools, well, let's be honest, 187 was aimed at Mexicans, and central Americans.
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So what does prop. 187 have to do with politics in Arizona? Well, history does have a habit of repeating itself, and one of the things that 187 did was to energize Hispanic citizens into a potent, Democratic, voting block. It also had a tendency to inspire moderate, Republican Hispanics to change parties. Nothing like a hate campaign from a major political party to inspire revulsion from the electorate.
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The sad thing is that there is a long history in the United States of employers using immigrants, both legal and illegal, to suppress wages and break unions. What 187 did, and what Arizona's new anti-immigrant law does, is it makes it difficult to discuss immigration in a rational manner. If we could, we would realize that one of the side affects of NAFTA, has been the wholesale destruction of small, family farming in Mexico. One of the reasons for increases in illegal immigration has been income lose suffered by poor, subsistence farmers in Mexico. Remember the Zapatistas, anyone.
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A trade policy based on equalizing the three NAFTA partners economies would go a long way towards solving immigration problems. Common social safety nets, common environmental laws, common anti-trust regulations, and if possible, common minimum wage scales, would enrich Canadian, Mexican, and American workers.
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I'm not going to deny that there are racist elements in Arizona's new anti-immigration law, but I do wish that my fellow liberals would remember that American workers do lose jobs, or have their wages reduced by immigration, both legal and illegal. Being aware of that may provoke a racist reaction, but recognition that the building trades, meat packing, and other jobs in the Untied States have been lost to illegal immigrants is, not in itself, racist.